BY ABDALA MASEREKA
Tom Kinyanya, the Managing Director of Ikongo Farmers’ Cooperative Society Limited has been left disappointed following the dismissal of their case against Uganda Wildlife Authority by the Court of Appeal.
Speaking to Messiah Radio yesterday in Kasese town, Mr. Kinyanya revealed that in the years 2008, 2009, and 2010, stray elephants from the Queen Elizabeth National Park, allegedly destroyed their 30 acres of tomatoes, beans, G. Nuts and Cotton that they had hired from Kabirizi.
According to him, after the incident, in 2010, they ran to the High Court in Fort-portal but the case was dismissed on two grounds.
One of the grounds indicated that by then there was no law regarding the compensation of people whose crops are destroyed by stray animals from the National Park. Another ground was saying that the case should have been handled individually instead of a cooperative.
After being dismissed by the High Court, Kinyanya and group ran to the Court of Appeal which according to him also dismissed but with costs awarded to the Uganda Wildlife Authority.
He said the Court of Appeal dismissed the case on ground that they filed their application late compared to the time they should have appealed.
Kinyanya is therefore worried that his cases might be dismissed if he proceeds with it to the Supreme Court since the time, he was supposed to file his appeal has elapsed because of financial challenges.
He revealed that he had remained helpless after writing to the leaders including the President seeking justice but all in vain.
ENDS